Poland

Act of 11 January 2018 on electromobility and alternative fuels

What is the regulation?

The Act provides the legal architecture for developing and operating alternative-fuel transport infrastructure, initially electricity, hydrogen and compressed or liquefied natural gas, but worded broadly enough to accommodate future fuels.

It establishes a national policy framework that sets quantitative deployment targets, grants consumers transparent and contract-free access to public charging and creates a central register that displays live and static data for every authorised charging point. A comprehensive glossary standardises technical vocabulary, ensuring consistency across downstream by-laws and technical standards. Local authorities receive explicit duties to zone for clean transport, plan roll-out corridors and publish progress updates, while the climate ministry gains delegated powers to adjust technical details, fee schedules and data formats as European requirements evolve.

Parallel amendments to the Energy, Building and Public-Procurement laws clear typical investment bottlenecks: expedited grid connections, simplified construction notifications and green-fleet procurement rules for public bodies. By integrating market access, consumer protection, grid planning and safety oversight into one coherent statute, the Act seeks to align Poland’s network build-out with European decarbonisation milestones, stimulate private capital by providing regulatory certainty, and guarantee end-users a uniform service experience irrespective of operator.

Who do the regulations apply to?

Infrastructure operators (entities that physically run charging stations) carry the greatest operational burden: they must secure a unique EIPA identifier, undergo safety inspections, publish real-time data, maintain billing-grade metering and open their facilities to any service provider on equal terms.

Electromobility service providers (companies that resell charging sessions) must display tariffs online, enable direct card or contactless payment at every public point and participate in roaming agreements so that drivers can authenticate with a single credential nationwide.

Distribution system operators are still responsible for connecting stations to the grid but are prevented from owning or operating them on a lasting basis; if they finance reinforcement works for high-power public chargers, the asset must later be offered to the market.

Property developers and building owners must future-proof new or substantially renovated car parks by reserving capacity, installing conduits and, for larger non-residential projects, commissioning at least one operational charger from day one.

Residents of apartment blocks obtain a statutory pathway to install private wall-boxes, while building managers are bound by tight decision deadlines.

Municipal authorities receive quantified charger-density targets and must take corrective action, including co-funding, if deployment lags. Market-surveillance bodies such as the Technical Inspection Office and the Trade Inspection service are directly referenced as competent authorities for safety and consumer-information compliance.

What are the requirements?

• Registration - Before energisation each public charging point must be entered in the national register and display its EIPA number. Operators and service providers pay a modest monthly fee that finances register maintenance.
• Data transparency - Static attributes such as location, connector type, nominal power and dynamic feeds covering status and price must reach the register through an open web service. The register shows live availability and flags points suspended for safety breaches. Consistent failure to transmit data can trigger administrative fines or delisting.
• Technical safety - Charging stations must meet electrical, fire-safety and accessibility criteria referenced in Polish Standards and ordinances. The Technical Inspection Office performs pre-commissioning and periodic checks that include insulation resistance, residual-current device response, full-load cycling and software integrity. Should a unit fail, the authority can impose an immediate shutdown until deficiencies are corrected and retested.
• Consumer access and billing - Every public charger rated above 3.7 kW for alternating current—or any level of direct-current power—must accept ad-hoc payment without requiring a prior contract. Price information must be displayed in a clear kilowatt-hour or time-based format, with no hidden activation or subscription charges. Charging software must capture session data in near real time and preserve it for post-transaction verification.
• Building-sector provisions - New non-residential buildings with more than ten parking bays must pre-cable at least one-fifth of spaces and activate one charger. Multi-apartment dwellings must install conduits to every space, making later upgrades non-invasive. Residents can propose a private wall-box, and building management must approve or provide a reasoned refusal within defined timeframes.
• Municipal targets and planning - Minimum charger counts scale with population and vehicle density. Local plans must specify locations, grid-capacity needs and funding sources; if targets are missed, authorities can offer subsidies or impose access obligations on public land.
• Reporting and sanctions - Operators dispensing more than one gigawatt-hour a year file an annual energy and downtime report. A catalogue of administrative offences covers data omissions, safety-inspection failures and price-transparency violations, with fines that can reach a percentage of annual turnover for repeated breaches.

Who enforces the regulations?

• Technical Inspection Office (UDT): Runs the EIPA register, reviews design documentation, conducts commissioning and periodic tests and can order immediate shutdowns where Art. 13 or ministerial-ordinance standards are breached.
• President of the Energy Regulatory Office (URE): Oversees DSO conduct and grid-connection rules and may oblige a DSO to auction a station if a buyer emerges (Art. 3b; Art. 46 §1 pkt 1).
• Minister of Climate & Environment: Sets annual EIPA-fee schedules and reports national deployment progress to the EU (Art. 41b §5; Art. 44).